Black Nicole, Hughes Robert, Jones Andrew M
Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia.
Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia.
Econ Hum Biol. 2018 Sep;31:1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.07.003. Epub 2018 Jul 23.
The effect of childhood obesity on medical costs incurred by the Australian Government is estimated using five waves of panel data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which is linked to public health insurance administrative records from Medicare Australia. Instrumental variables estimators are used to address concerns about measurement error and selection bias. The additional annual medical costs due to overweight and obesity among 6 to 13 year olds is about $43 million (in 2015 AUD). This is driven by a higher utilisation of general practitioner and specialist doctors. The results suggest that the economic consequences of childhood obesity are much larger than previously estimated.
利用来自澳大利亚儿童纵向研究的五波面板数据，估计了儿童肥胖对澳大利亚政府产生的医疗费用的影响，该数据与澳大利亚医疗保险的公共医疗保险行政记录相关联。使用工具变量估计量来处理对测量误差和选择偏差的担忧。6至13岁儿童超重和肥胖导致的额外年度医疗费用约为4300万美元（2015年澳元）。这是由于全科医生和专科医生的利用率较高所致。结果表明，儿童肥胖的经济后果比先前估计的要大得多。
